by Snak Shak

Article by Bryan Siemon

Energy Savings, ROI, Enhanced Human Perfermance: It’s All Possible

Active Daylighting is one of the hottest trends in lighting. Today’s daylighting technology is not your “father’s skylight”. It provides owners and managers of single-story buildings the opportunity to completely turn off artificial lighting for an average of ten hours a day, saving significant energy and the money it costs. Active daylighting also boosts the quality and levels of light, thus enhancing the performance of employees. Ever wonder why people tend to feel tired or depressed when it rains? It’s because the human body needs sunlight. The detrimental effects of too little sunlight are more than just emotional. Natural sunlight is how our bodies regulate body processes, keeping us alert and healthy. According to the National Commission on Sleep Disorders, U.S. businesses lose 0 billion every year due to employee fatigue. Not only does sunlight make us feel better, it allows us to perform better. Buildings that use “daylighting” systems are better lit which improves visibility and reduces mistakes. Happy workers are productive workers and the simple act of exposing employees to natural sunlight can reduce absenteeism and turnover while increasing overall productivity. Research and case studies show active daylighting delivers.The SunTracker Advanced Daylighting System can produce up to nine times more light than a passive skylight and deliver it fifty percent longer while distributing it more evenly and over a wider area. Compared to electric lighting, an active daylighting unit produces illumination equivalent to 800 watts of fluorescent lighting, or more than a 1,000 watt metal halide lamp. Since the SunTracker is equipped with its own solar power, it does not draw any line voltage, electricity cost for lighting drop to zero during the average ten hours a day that it reflects light indoors. The combination of lumen performance, low operating cost and long life cycle is what makes the technology so energy efficient, and so desirable.

Lighting is not the only expense in a business energy cost, heating and air conditioning can add a considerable amount to the monthly bill. Ciralight’s SunTracker come with a unique diffuser lens and thermal barrier that bring the sun light in but keep the heat out saving you on your HVAC use and cost. Unlike halide or fluorescent lights or even passive skylights, there is no heat gain with these advanced skylights. No extra heat means less energy, thus less money spent running your air-conditioner.SunTracker customer Bill Wygal, President of Bill’s Ace Hardware in Martinez, CA says “…in this location something we weren’t really prepared for is we have a higher average sale.” Increasing sales is the goal of every store owner and natural sunlight can play an important role in that. Artificial light allows the human eye to see about 8 shades of color, natural lighting will allow a person to see 500,000 shades of color on a clear day. The natural light brought into the store location can help make the products look fresh and new allowing customers to see and read the product better. Natural light also makes a person feel comfortable making it possible for them to stay in the store longer, increasing the possibility of additional product sales they did not originally come to purchase.The SunTracker One and Three designs include a Triple canted, high-reflective mirror, solar-powered electric motor, and GPS (global positioning satellite) microprocessor with super compositor for backup power on cloudy days. While the SunTracker Two has a Single canted, high-reflective mirror. All models come with a clear acrylic dome that protects all components from the elements. A reflective light well and diffuser lens are installed through the roof into the building to help trap the heat and distribute the natural light evenly. The GPS microprocessor “knows” where the sun is throughout the day and from season to season. It moves the mirror incrementally every ten minutes, tracking the sun’s path across the sky from dawn to dusk.Active daylighting produces so much illumination that electric lights can be turned off for up to 10 hours a day by capturing sunshine from about one hour after dawn to about one hour before dusk. The technology is completely self contained and like passive skylights requires virtually no maintenance. The light from an advanced daylighting system is uniform and scores 100 on the color rendering index since its natural. By comparison, the limited number of metal halide and fluorescent lamps in the facility rate 90 or 92 on the index. The higher level and quality of light produced by the sun can improve morale, increase productivity and reduce errors.Industrial centers are only one of the suitable applications for active daylighting. Owners of retail stores are flocking to it. A major, two-year study sponsored by the California Energy Commission drew hard conclusions suggesting that retail developers and owners can consider integrating more daylighting into new construction and retrofits. Stores with significant levels of daylighting experienced up to a six percent increase in monthly sales and a 1-2 percent increase in transactions. As the number of hours that daylighting illuminates a retail space increase, so does the relative effect on sales. Study results suggest that daylighting levels are at least as useful in predicting sales potential as competitive and demographic variable, which historically have carried considerable weight. Profit produced by higher sales dwarfs any savings in utility bills. The study conservatively estimated that the profit from sales generated by daylighting is at least 19 times the value of energy that daylighting saves. The study concluded profit from sales may be worth 45-100 times more than the energy savings.Although customers say they do not notice daylighting, their buying patterns suggest they do. What is it about daylighting that makes consumers respond favorable? It’s a combination of elements with brightness being most important. The link between brightly lit environments and human performance is well understood.Besides brightness, another element is optimized color rendering. Unlike electric lighting, daylighting provides fairly equal amounts of all colors in the spectrum. Merchandise looks more natural, colorful and vivid, making it easier for customers to examine products. A final element may be store employees. Employees tend to perform better and be more sociable when exposed to daylighting, compared to electric lighting. The U.S. Green Building Council reported that employee costs represent about 90 percent of a typical building’s total cost over a typical thirty year span, so even small incremental increases in productivity can help the bottom line in a hurry.In Martinez, California, Ace Hardware reported a ten percent sales boost after installing the SunTracker Skylights. Monthly bills dropped an average of 00.00 per month for the 14,400 sq. ft. store. In fact the daylighting technology paid for itself in just three and a half years. Store management also noticed a decrease in employee turnover. Of the five stores Wygal oversees, the one that features daylighting has produced less employee turnover for the past 11 years. According to Wygal, the store’s employees are genuinely happier because they are exposed to natural light for most of the day. The cost of energy will continue to rise and the need to be “Green“ is ever present in the minds of consumers. In fact, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), projects electricity consumption to increase by 45% by 2030. With increased human performance, less absenteeism, fewer employee accidents equaling less workman’s comp claims, a decrease in your energy bill and an increase in sales, you won’t find a more reliable product on the market today. The SunTracker Lighting System is leading the way in innovation by re-envisioning an old idea, using natural sunlight to illuminate the indoors. The SunTracker Lighting System is truly a revolution in interior lighting. It combines cutting edge technology with the purity of nature. Smarter,” greener”, cheaper, the SunTracker Lighting System is the future.

About the Author

Bryan is a partner at Adler Technology, his primary role is sales and marketing. Adler Technology is an authorized dealer of the Ciralight SunTrack “intelligent skylights”. Our company provides retail stores, warehouses, schools and any large one story facility the Suntracker One and Suntracker Two advanced daylighting system. We are dedicated to preserving our environment and helping all commercial and industrial building’s cut their energy cost. Our team can help any business, organization and government facility reduce the use of electricity and cut their energy cost. From the initial lighting analysis to the final installation, we are here to help. Our goal to go Green starts with us. Adler Technology is committed to being a paperless company. By using technologies like emailing, online file transfers, digital signatures, online bill pay, online bank statements and all the other advantages of the digital age, we operate with minimal paper use. Let us help your business or organization go Green and save money.

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